The extent to which de media reports have responsibwy informed de pubwic is disputed. In January 2014, Obama said dat "de sensationaw way in which dese discwosures have come out has often shed more heat dan wight"[23] and critics such as Sean Wiwentz have noted dat many of de Snowden documents reweased do not concern domestic surveiwwance.[24] In its first assessment of dese discwosures, de Pentagon concwuded dat Snowden committed de biggest "deft" of U.S. secrets in de history of de United States.[25] Sir David Omand, a former director of GCHQ, described Snowden's discwosure as de "most catastrophic woss to British intewwigence ever".[26]

"Taken togeder, de revewations have brought to wight a gwobaw surveiwwance system dat cast off many of its historicaw restraints after de attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Secret wegaw audorities empowered de NSA to sweep in de tewephone, Internet and wocation records of whowe popuwations."

The discwosure reveawed specific detaiws of de NSA's cwose cooperation wif U.S. federaw agencies such as de Federaw Bureau of Investigation (FBI)[28][29] and de Centraw Intewwigence Agency (CIA)[30][31] in addition to de agency's previouswy undiscwosed financiaw payments to numerous commerciaw partners and tewecommunications companies,[32][33][34] as weww as its previouswy undiscwosed rewationships wif internationaw partners such as Britain,[35][36] France[12][37] Germany,[5][38] and its secret treaties wif foreign governments dat were recentwy estabwished for sharing intercepted data of each oder's citizens.[7][39][40][41] The discwosures were made pubwic over de course of severaw monds since June 2013, by de press in severaw nations from de trove weaked by de former NSA contractor Edward J. Snowden,[42] who obtained de trove whiwe working for Booz Awwen Hamiwton.[2]

The NSA was awso getting data directwy from tewecommunications companies codenamed Artifice, Lidium, Serenade, SteewKnight, and X. The reaw identities of de companies behind dese codenames were not incwuded in de Snowden document dump because dey were protected as Exceptionawwy Controwwed Information which prevents wide circuwation even to dose (wike Snowden) who oderwise have de necessary security cwearance.[65][66]

As a contractor of de NSA, Snowden was granted access to U.S. government documents awong wif top secret documents of severaw awwied governments, via de excwusive Five Eyes network.[69] Snowden cwaims dat he is currentwy not in physicaw possession of any of dese documents, after having surrendered aww copies to de journawists he met in Hong Kong.[70]

In de aftermaf of Snowden's revewations, The Pentagon concwuded dat Snowden committed de biggest deft of U.S. secrets in de history of de United States.[25] In Austrawia, de coawition government described de weaks as de most damaging bwow deawt to Austrawian intewwigence in history.[43] Sir David Omand, a former director of GCHQ, described Snowden's discwosure as de "most catastrophic woss to British intewwigence ever".[26]

In May 2013, Snowden went on temporary weave from his position at de NSA, citing de pretext of receiving treatment for his epiwepsy. Towards de end of May, he travewed to Hong Kong.[90][91] Greenwawd, Poitras and de Guardian's defence and intewwigence correspondent Ewen MacAskiww fwew to Hong Kong to meet Snowden, uh-hah-hah-hah.

After de U.S.-based editor of The Guardian, Janine Gibson, hewd severaw meetings in New York City, it was decided dat Greenwawd, Poitras and de Guardian's defence and intewwigence correspondent Ewen MacAskiww wouwd fwy to Hong Kong to meet Snowden, uh-hah-hah-hah. On June 5, in de first media report based on de weaked materiaw,[92]The Guardian exposed a top secret court order showing dat de NSA had cowwected phone records from over 120 miwwion Verizon subscribers.[93] Under de order, de numbers of bof parties on a caww, as weww as de wocation data, uniqwe identifiers, time of caww, and duration of caww were handed over to de FBI, which turned over de records to de NSA.[93] According to The Waww Street Journaw, de Verizon order is part of a controversiaw data program, which seeks to stockpiwe records on aww cawws made in de U.S., but does not cowwect information directwy from T-Mobiwe US and Verizon Wirewess, in part because of deir foreign ownership ties.[94]

On June 6, 2013, de second media discwosure, de revewation of de PRISM surveiwwance program (which cowwects de e-maiw, voice, text and video chats of foreigners and an unknown number of Americans from Microsoft, Googwe, Facebook, Yahoo, Appwe and oder tech giants),[95][96][97][98] was pubwished simuwtaneouswy by The Guardian and The Washington Post.[86][99]

Swide from a 2008 NSA presentation about XKeyscore, showing a worwdmap wif de wocations of XKeyscore servers

From 2001 to 2011, de NSA cowwected vast amounts of metadata records detaiwing de emaiw and internet usage of Americans via Stewwar Wind,[111] which was water terminated due to operationaw and resource constraints. It was subseqwentwy repwaced by newer surveiwwance programs such as ShewwTrumpet, which "processed its one triwwionf metadata record" by de end of December 2012.[112]

The NSA fowwows specific procedures to target non-U.S. persons[113] and to minimize data cowwection from U.S. persons.[114] These court-approved powicies awwow de NSA to:[115][116]

keep data dat couwd potentiawwy contain detaiws of U.S. persons for up to five years;

retain and make use of "inadvertentwy acqwired" domestic communications if dey contain usabwe intewwigence, information on criminaw activity, dreat of harm to peopwe or property, are encrypted, or are bewieved to contain any information rewevant to cybersecurity;

access de content of communications gadered from "U.S. based machine[s]" or phone numbers in order to estabwish if targets are wocated in de U.S., for de purposes of ceasing furder surveiwwance.

According to Boundwess Informant, over 97 biwwion pieces of intewwigence were cowwected over a 30-day period ending in March 2013. Out of aww 97 biwwion sets of information, about 3 biwwion data sets originated from U.S. computer networks[117] and around 500 miwwion metadata records were cowwected from German networks.[118]

In August 2013, it was reveawed dat de Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND) of Germany transfers massive amounts of metadata records to de NSA.[119]

Der Spiegew discwosed dat Germany is de most targeted country of de 27 members of de European Union due to de NSA systematic monitoring and storage of Germany's tewephone and Internet connection data. According to de magazine de NSA stores data from around hawf a biwwion communications connections in Germany each monf. This data incwudes tewephone cawws, emaiws, mobiwe-phone text messages and chat transcripts.[120]

On June 11, 2013, The Guardian pubwished a snapshot of de NSA's gwobaw map of ewectronic data cowwection for de monf of March 2013. Known as de Boundwess Informant, de program is used by de NSA to track de amount of data being anawyzed over a specific period of time. The cowor scheme ranges from green (weast subjected to surveiwwance) drough yewwow and orange to red (most surveiwwance). Outside de Middwe East, onwy China, Germany, India, Kenya, Cowombia, de United Kingdom, and de United States are cowored orange or yewwow

The NSA gained massive amounts of information captured from de monitored data traffic in Europe. For exampwe, in December 2013, de NSA gadered on an average day metadata from some 15 miwwion tewephone connections and 10 miwwion Internet datasets. The NSA awso monitored de European Commission in Brussews and monitored EU dipwomatic Faciwities in Washington and at de United Nations by pwacing bugs in offices as weww as infiwtrating computer networks.[121]

The U.S. government made as part of its UPSTREAM data cowwection program deaws wif companies to ensure dat it had access to and hence de capabiwity to surveiw undersea fiber-optic cabwes which dewiver e-maiws, Web pages, oder ewectronic communications and phone cawws from one continent to anoder at de speed of wight.[122][123]

According to de Braziwian newspaper O Gwobo, de NSA spied on miwwions of emaiws and cawws of Braziwian citizens,[124][125] whiwe Austrawia and New Zeawand have been invowved in de joint operation of de NSA's gwobaw anawyticaw system XKeyscore.[126][127] Among de numerous awwied faciwities contributing to XKeyscore are four instawwations in Austrawia and one in New Zeawand:

According to Edward Snowden, de NSA has estabwished secret intewwigence partnerships wif many Western governments.[127] The Foreign Affairs Directorate (FAD) of de NSA is responsibwe for dese partnerships, which, according to Snowden, are organized such dat foreign governments can "insuwate deir powiticaw weaders" from pubwic outrage in de event dat dese gwobaw surveiwwance partnerships are weaked.[129]

In an interview pubwished by Der Spiegew, Snowden accused de NSA of being "in bed togeder wif de Germans".[130] The NSA granted de German intewwigence agencies BND (foreign intewwigence) and BfV (domestic intewwigence) access to its controversiaw XKeyscore system.[131] In return, de BND turned over copies of two systems named Mira4 and Veras, reported to exceed de NSA's SIGINT capabiwities in certain areas.[5] Every day, massive amounts of metadata records are cowwected by de BND and transferred to de NSA via de Bad Aibwing Station near Munich, Germany.[5] In December 2012 awone, de BND handed over 500 miwwion metadata records to de NSA.[132][133]

In a document dated January 2013, de NSA acknowwedged de efforts of de BND to undermine privacy waws:

"The BND has been working to infwuence de German government to rewax interpretation of de privacy waws to provide greater opportunities of intewwigence sharing".[133]

According to an NSA document dated Apriw 2013, Germany has now become de NSA's "most prowific partner".[133] Under a section of a separate document weaked by Snowden titwed "Success Stories", de NSA acknowwedged de efforts of de German government to expand de BND's internationaw data sharing wif partners:

"The German government modifies its interpretation of de G-10 privacy waw … to afford de BND more fwexibiwity in sharing protected information wif foreign partners."[50]

In addition, de German government was weww aware of de PRISM surveiwwance program wong before Edward Snowden made detaiws pubwic. According to Angewa Merkew's spokesman Steffen Seibert, dere are two separate PRISM programs – one is used by de NSA and de oder is used by NATO forces in Afghanistan.[134] The two programs are "not identicaw".[134]

The Guardian reveawed furder detaiws of de NSA's XKeyscore toow, which awwows government anawysts to search drough vast databases containing emaiws, onwine chats and de browsing histories of miwwions of individuaws widout prior audorization, uh-hah-hah-hah.[135][136][137] Microsoft "devewoped a surveiwwance capabiwity to deaw" wif de interception of encrypted chats on Outwook.com, widin five monds after de service went into testing. NSA had access to Outwook.com emaiws because "Prism cowwects dis data prior to encryption, uh-hah-hah-hah."[47]

In addition, Microsoft worked wif de FBI to enabwe de NSA to gain access to its cwoud storage service SkyDrive. An internaw NSA document dating from August 3, 2012 described de PRISM surveiwwance program as a "team sport".[47]

Even if dere is no reason to suspect U.S. citizens of wrongdoing, de CIA's Nationaw Counterterrorism Center is awwowed to examine federaw government fiwes for possibwe criminaw behavior. Previouswy de NTC was barred to do so, unwess a person was a terror suspect or rewated to an investigation, uh-hah-hah-hah.[138]

Snowden awso confirmed dat Stuxnet was cooperativewy devewoped by de United States and Israew.[139] In a report unrewated to Edward Snowden, de French newspaper Le Monde reveawed dat France's DGSE was awso undertaking mass surveiwwance, which it described as "iwwegaw and outside any serious controw".[140][141]

Tewecommunication companies who participated were "forced" to do so and had "no choice in de matter".[143] Some of de companies were subseqwentwy paid by GCHQ for deir participation in de infiwtration of de cabwes.[143] According to de SZ, GCHQ has access to de majority of internet and tewephone communications fwowing droughout Europe, can wisten to phone cawws, read emaiws and text messages, see which websites internet users from aww around de worwd are visiting. It can awso retain and anawyse nearwy de entire European internet traffic.[143]

GCHQ is cowwecting aww data transmitted to and from de United Kingdom and Nordern Europe via de undersea fibre optic tewecommunications cabwe SEA-ME-WE 3. The Security and Intewwigence Division (SID) of Singapore co-operates wif Austrawia in accessing and sharing communications carried by de SEA-ME-WE-3 cabwe. The Austrawian Signaws Directorate (ASD) is awso in a partnership wif British, American and Singaporean intewwigence agencies to tap undersea fibre optic tewecommunications cabwes dat wink Asia, de Middwe East and Europe and carry much of Austrawia's internationaw phone and internet traffic.[144]

The U.S. runs a top-secret surveiwwance program known as de Speciaw Cowwection Service (SCS), which is based in over 80 U.S. consuwates and embassies worwdwide.[145][146] The NSA hacked de United Nations' video conferencing system in Summer 2012 in viowation of a UN agreement.[145][146]

The NSA is not just intercepting de communications of Americans who are in direct contact wif foreigners targeted overseas, but awso searching de contents of vast amounts of e-maiw and text communications into and out of de country by Americans who mention information about foreigners under surveiwwance.[147] It awso spied on de Aw Jazeera and gained access to its internaw communications systems.[148]

The NSA has buiwt a surveiwwance network dat has de capacity to reach roughwy 75% of aww U.S. Internet traffic.[149][150][151] U.S. Law-enforcement agencies use toows used by computer hackers to gader information on suspects.[152][153] An internaw NSA audit from May 2012 identified 2776 incidents i.e. viowations of de ruwes or court orders for surveiwwance of Americans and foreign targets in de U.S. in de period from Apriw 2011 drough March 2012, whiwe U.S. officiaws stressed dat any mistakes are not intentionaw.[154][155][156][157][158][159][160]

The FISA Court dat is supposed to provide criticaw oversight of de U.S. government's vast spying programs has wimited abiwity to do so and it must trust de government to report when it improperwy spies on Americans.[161] A wegaw opinion decwassified on August 21, 2013, reveawed dat de NSA intercepted for dree years as many as 56,000 ewectronic communications a year of Americans not suspected of having winks to terrorism, before FISA court dat oversees surveiwwance found de operation unconstitutionaw in 2011.[162][163][164][165][166] Under de Corporate Partner Access project, major U.S. tewecommunications providers receive hundreds of miwwions of dowwars each year from de NSA.[167] Vowuntary cooperation between de NSA and de providers of gwobaw communications took off during de 1970s under de cover name BLARNEY.[167]

A wetter drafted by de Obama administration specificawwy to inform Congress of de government's mass cowwection of Americans' tewephone communications data was widhewd from wawmakers by weaders of de House Intewwigence Committee in de monds before a key vote affecting de future of de program.[168][169]

The NSA paid GCHQ over £100 Miwwion between 2009 and 2012, in exchange for dese funds GCHQ "must puww its weight and be seen to puww its weight." Documents referenced in de articwe expwain dat de weaker British waws regarding spying are "a sewwing point" for de NSA. GCHQ is awso devewoping de technowogy to "expwoit any mobiwe phone at any time."[170] The NSA has under a wegaw audority a secret backdoor into its databases gadered from warge Internet companies enabwing it to search for U.S. citizens' emaiw and phone cawws widout a warrant.[171][172]

The Privacy and Civiw Liberties Oversight Board urged de U.S. intewwigence chiefs to draft stronger US surveiwwance guidewines on domestic spying after finding dat severaw of dose guidewines have not been updated up to 30 years.[173][174] U.S. intewwigence anawysts have dewiberatewy broken ruwes designed to prevent dem from spying on Americans by choosing to ignore so-cawwed "minimisation procedures" aimed at protecting privacy[175][176] and used de NSA's agency's enormous eavesdropping power to spy on wove interests.[177]

After de U.S. Foreign Secret Intewwigence Court ruwed in October 2011 dat some of de NSA's activities were unconstitutionaw, de agency paid miwwions of dowwars to major internet companies to cover extra costs incurred in deir invowvement wif de PRISM surveiwwance program.[178]

In 2013, it was furder reveawed dat de NSA had made a £17.2 miwwion financiaw contribution to de project, which is capabwe of vacuuming signaws from up to 200 fibre-optic cabwes at aww physicaw points of entry into Great Britain, uh-hah-hah-hah.[180]

The Guardian and The New York Times reported on secret documents weaked by Snowden showing dat de NSA has been in "cowwaboration wif technowogy companies" as part of "an aggressive, muwtipronged effort" to weaken de encryption used in commerciaw software, and GCHQ has a team dedicated to cracking "Hotmaiw, Googwe, Yahoo and Facebook" traffic.[181][182][183][184][185][186]

Germany's domestic security agency Bundesverfassungsschutz (BfV) systematicawwy transfers de personaw data of German residents to de NSA, CIA and seven oder members of de United States Intewwigence Community, in exchange for information and espionage software.[187][188][189] Israew, Sweden and Itawy are awso cooperating wif American and British intewwigence agencies. Under a secret treaty codenamed "Lustre", French intewwigence agencies transferred miwwions of metadata records to de NSA.[63][64][190][191]

The Obama Administration secretwy won permission from de Foreign Intewwigence Surveiwwance Court in 2011 to reverse restrictions on de Nationaw Security Agency's use of intercepted phone cawws and e-maiws, permitting de agency to search dewiberatewy for Americans' communications in its massive databases. The searches take pwace under a surveiwwance program Congress audorized in 2008 under Section 702 of de Foreign Intewwigence Surveiwwance Act. Under dat waw, de target must be a foreigner "reasonabwy bewieved" to be outside de United States, and de court must approve de targeting procedures in an order good for one year. But a warrant for each target wouwd dus no wonger be reqwired. That means dat communications wif Americans couwd be picked up widout a court first determining dat dere is probabwe cause dat de peopwe dey were tawking to were terrorists, spies or "foreign powers." The FISC extended de wengf of time dat de NSA is awwowed to retain intercepted U.S. communications from five years to six years wif an extension possibwe for foreign intewwigence or counterintewwigence purposes. Bof measures were done widout pubwic debate or any specific audority from Congress.[192]

A speciaw branch of de NSA cawwed "Fowwow de Money" (FTM) monitors internationaw payments, banking and credit card transactions and water stores de cowwected data in de NSA's own financiaw databank "Tracfin".[193] The NSA monitored de communications of Braziw's president Diwma Rousseff and her top aides.[194] The agency awso spied on Braziw's oiw firm Petrobras as weww as French dipwomats, and gained access to de private network of de Ministry of Foreign Affairs of France and de SWIFT network.[195]

In de United States, de NSA uses de anawysis of phone caww and e-maiw wogs of American citizens to create sophisticated graphs of deir sociaw connections dat can identify deir associates, deir wocations at certain times, deir travewing companions and oder personaw information, uh-hah-hah-hah.[196] The NSA routinewy shares raw intewwigence data wif Israew widout first sifting it to remove information about U.S. citizens.[7][197]

In an effort codenamed GENIE, computer speciawists can controw foreign computer networks using "covert impwants," a form of remotewy transmitted mawware on tens of dousands of devices annuawwy.[198][199][200][201] As worwdwide sawes of smartphones began exceeding dose of feature phones, de NSA decided to take advantage of de smartphone boom. This is particuwarwy advantageous because de smartphone combines a myriad of data dat wouwd interest an intewwigence agency, such as sociaw contacts, user behavior, interests, wocation, photos and credit card numbers and passwords.[202]

An internaw NSA report from 2010 stated dat de spread of de smartphone has been occurring "extremewy rapidwy"—devewopments dat "certainwy compwicate traditionaw target anawysis."[202] According to de document, de NSA has set up task forces assigned to severaw smartphone manufacturers and operating systems, incwuding Appwe Inc.'s iPhone and iOS operating system, as weww as Googwe's Android mobiwe operating system.[202] Simiwarwy, Britain's GCHQ assigned a team to study and crack de BwackBerry.[202]

An NSA presentation cawwed "Your target is using a BwackBerry? Now what?" shows an intercepted Mexican government e-maiw.

Under de heading "iPhone capabiwity", de document notes dat dere are smawwer NSA programs, known as "scripts", dat can perform surveiwwance on 38 different features of de iOS 3 and iOS 4 operating systems. These incwude de mapping feature, voicemaiw and photos, as weww as Googwe Earf, Facebook and Yahoo! Messenger.[202]

On October 4, 2013, The Washington Post and The Guardian jointwy reported dat de NSA and GCHQ had made repeated attempts to spy on anonymous Internet users who have been communicating in secret via de anonymity network Tor. Severaw of dese surveiwwance operations invowved de impwantation of mawicious code into de computers of Tor users who visit particuwar websites. The NSA and GCHQ had partwy succeeded in bwocking access to de anonymous network, diverting Tor users to insecure channews. The government agencies were awso abwe to uncover de identity of some anonymous Internet users.[204][205][206][207][208][209][210][211][212]

The Austrawian Federaw Government knew about de PRISM surveiwwance program monds before Edward Snowden made detaiws pubwic.[215][216]

The NSA gadered hundreds of miwwions of contact wists from personaw e-maiw and instant messaging accounts around de worwd. The agency did not target individuaws. Instead it cowwected contact wists in warge numbers dat amount to a sizabwe fraction of de worwd’s e-maiw and instant messaging accounts. Anawysis of dat data enabwes de agency to search for hidden connections and to map rewationships widin a much smawwer universe of foreign intewwigence targets.[217][218][219][220]

The NSA monitored de pubwic emaiw account of former Mexican president Fewipe Cawderón (dus gaining access to de communications of high-ranking cabinet members), de emaiws of severaw high-ranking members of Mexico's security forces and text and de mobiwe phone communication of current Mexican president Enriqwe Peña Nieto.[221][222] The NSA tries to gader cewwuwar and wandwine phone numbers—often obtained from American dipwomats—for as many foreign officiaws as possibwe. The contents of de phone cawws are stored in computer databases dat can reguwarwy be searched using keywords.[223][224]

The NSA has been monitoring tewephone conversations of 35 worwd weaders.[225] The U.S. government's first pubwic acknowwedgment dat it tapped de phones of worwd weaders was reported on October 28, 2013, by de Waww Street Journaw after an internaw U.S. government review turned up NSA monitoring of some 35 worwd weaders.[226]GCHQ has tried to keep its mass surveiwwance program a secret because it feared a "damaging pubwic debate" on de scawe of its activities which couwd wead to wegaw chawwenges against dem.[227]

The Guardian reveawed dat de NSA had been monitoring tewephone conversations of 35 worwd weaders after being given de numbers by an officiaw in anoder U.S. government department. A confidentiaw memo reveawed dat de NSA encouraged senior officiaws in such Departments as de White House, State and The Pentagon, to share deir "Rowodexes" so de agency couwd add de tewephone numbers of weading foreign powiticians to deir surveiwwance systems. Reacting to de news, German weader Angewa Merkew, arriving in Brussews for an EU summit, accused de U.S. of a breach of trust, saying: "We need to have trust in our awwies and partners, and dis must now be estabwished once again, uh-hah-hah-hah. I repeat dat spying among friends is not at aww acceptabwe against anyone, and dat goes for every citizen in Germany."[225] The NSA cowwected in 2010 data on ordinary Americans' cewwphone wocations, but water discontinued it because it had no "operationaw vawue."[228]

The mobiwe phone of German Chancewwor Angewa Merkew might have been tapped by U.S. intewwigence.[234][235][236][237][238][239][240] According to de Spiegew dis monitoring goes back to 2002[241][242][243] and ended in de summer of 2013,[226] whiwe The New York Times reported dat Germany has evidence dat de NSA's surveiwwance of Merkew began during George W. Bush's tenure.[244] After wearning from Der Spiegew magazine dat de NSA has been wistening in to her personaw mobiwe phone, Merkew compared de snooping practices of de NSA wif dose of de Stasi.[245] It was reported in March 2014, by Der Spiegew dat Merkew had awso been pwaced on an NSA surveiwwance wist awongside 122 oder worwd weaders.[246]

A highwy sensitive signaws intewwigence cowwection program known as Stateroom invowves de interception of radio, tewecommunications and internet traffic. It is operated out of de dipwomatic missions of de Five Eyes (Austrawia, Britain, Canada, New Zeawand, United States) in numerous wocations around de worwd. The program conducted at U.S. dipwomatic missions is run in concert by de U.S. intewwigence agencies NSA and CIA in a joint venture group cawwed "Speciaw Cowwection Service" (SCS), whose members work undercover in shiewded areas of de American Embassies and Consuwates, where dey are officiawwy accredited as dipwomats and as such enjoy speciaw priviweges. Under dipwomatic protection, dey are abwe to wook and wisten unhindered. The SCS for exampwe used de American Embassy near de Brandenburg Gate in Berwin to monitor communications in Germany's government district wif its parwiament and de seat of de government.[240][248][249][250]

Under de Stateroom surveiwwance programme, Austrawia operates cwandestine surveiwwance faciwities to intercept phone cawws and data across much of Asia.[249][251]

In France, de NSA targeted peopwe bewonging to de worwds of business, powitics or French state administration, uh-hah-hah-hah. The NSA monitored and recorded de content of tewephone communications and de history of de connections of each target i.e. de metadata.[252][253] The actuaw surveiwwance operation was performed by French intewwigence agencies on behawf of de NSA.[63][254] The cooperation between France and de NSA was confirmed by de Director of de NSA, Keif B. Awexander, who asserted dat foreign intewwigence services cowwected phone records in "war zones" and "oder areas outside deir borders" and provided dem to de NSA.[255]

In Spain, de NSA intercepted de tewephone conversations, text messages and emaiws of miwwions of Spaniards, and spied on members of de Spanish government.[257] Between December 10, 2012 and January 8, 2013, de NSA cowwected metadata on 60 miwwion tewephone cawws in Spain, uh-hah-hah-hah.[258]

According to documents weaked by Snowden, de surveiwwance of Spanish citizens was jointwy conducted by de NSA and de intewwigence agencies of Spain, uh-hah-hah-hah.[259][260]

On October 4, 2013, The Washington Post pubwished a PowerPoint presentation weaked by Snowden, showing how de NSA had compromised de Tor encrypted network dat is being empwoyed by hundreds of dousands of peopwe to circumvent "nation state internet powicies". By secretwy expwoiting a JavaScriptpwug-in, de NSA was abwe to uncover de identities of various anonymous Internet users such as dissidents, terrorists, and oder targets

The New York Times reported dat de NSA carries out an eavesdropping effort, dubbed Operation Dreadnought, against de Iranian weader Ayatowwah Awi Khamenei. During his 2009 visit to Iranian Kurdistan, de agency cowwaborated wif GCHQ and de U.S.'s Nationaw Geospatiaw-Intewwigence Agency, cowwecting radio transmissions between aircraft and airports, examining Khamenei's convoy wif satewwite imagery, and enumerating miwitary radar stations. According to de story, an objective of de operation is "communications fingerprinting": de abiwity to distinguish Khamenei's communications from dose of oder peopwe in Iran.[261]

The same story reveawed an operation code-named Ironavenger, in which de NSA intercepted e-maiws sent between a country awwied wif de United States and de government of "an adversary". The awwy was conducting a spear-phishing attack: its e-maiws contained mawware. The NSA gadered documents and wogin credentiaws bewonging to de enemy country, awong wif knowwedge of de awwy's capabiwities for attacking computers.[261]

According to de British newspaper The Independent, de British intewwigence agency GCHQ maintains a wistening post on de roof of de British Embassy in Berwin dat is capabwe of intercepting mobiwe phone cawws, wi-fi data and wong-distance communications aww over de German capitaw, incwuding adjacent government buiwdings such as de Reichstag (seat of de German parwiament) and de Chancewwery (seat of Germany's head of government) cwustered around de Brandenburg Gate.[262]

Operating under de code-name "Quantum Insert", GCHQ set up a fake website masqwerading as LinkedIn, a sociaw website used for professionaw networking, as part of its efforts to instaww surveiwwance software on de computers of de tewecommunications operator Bewgacom.[263][264][265] In addition, de headqwarters of de oiw cartew OPEC were infiwtrated by GCHQ as weww as de NSA, which bugged de computers of nine OPEC empwoyees and monitored de Generaw Secretary of OPEC.[263]

For more dan dree years GCHQ has been using an automated monitoring system code-named "Royaw Concierge" to infiwtrate de reservation systems of at weast 350 prestigious hotews in many different parts of de worwd in order to target, search and anawyze reservations to detect dipwomats and government officiaws.[266] First tested in 2010, de aim of de "Royaw Concierge" is to track down de travew pwans of dipwomats, and it is often suppwemented wif surveiwwance medods rewated to human intewwigence (HUMINT). Oder covert operations incwude de wiretapping of room tewephones and fax machines used in targeted hotews as weww as de monitoring of computers hooked up to de hotew network.[266]

Carrying de titwe "3G impact and update", a cwassified presentation weaked by Snowden reveawed de attempts of de ASD/DSD to keep up to pace wif de rowwout of 3G technowogy in Indonesia and across Soudeast Asia. The ASD/DSD motto pwaced at de bottom of each page reads: "Reveaw deir secrets—protect our own, uh-hah-hah-hah."[268]

Under a secret deaw approved by British intewwigence officiaws, de NSA has been storing and anawyzing de internet and emaiw records of UK citizens since 2007. The NSA awso proposed in 2005 a procedure for spying on de citizens of de UK and oder Five-Eyes nations awwiance, even where de partner government has expwicitwy denied de U.S. permission to do so. Under de proposaw, partner countries must neider be informed about dis particuwar type of surveiwwance, nor de procedure of doing so.[39]

Towards de end of November, The New York Times reweased an internaw NSA report outwining de agency's efforts to expand its surveiwwance abiwities.[269] The five-page document asserts dat de waw of de United States has not kept up wif de needs of de NSA to conduct mass surveiwwance in de "gowden age" of signaws intewwigence, but dere are grounds for optimism because, in de NSA's own words:

"The cuwture of compwiance, which has awwowed de American peopwe to entrust NSA wif extraordinary audorities, wiww not be compromised in de face of so many demands, even as we aggressivewy pursue wegaw audorities..."[270]

The report, titwed "SIGINT Strategy 2012–2016", awso said dat de U.S. wiww try to infwuence de "gwobaw commerciaw encryption market" drough "commerciaw rewationships", and emphasized de need to "revowutionize" de anawysis of its vast data cowwection to "radicawwy increase operationaw impact".[269]

On November 23, 2013, de Dutch newspaper NRC Handewsbwad reported dat de Nederwands was targeted by U.S. intewwigence agencies in de immediate aftermaf of Worwd War II. This period of surveiwwance wasted from 1946 to 1968, and awso incwuded de interception of de communications of oder European countries incwuding Bewgium, France, West Germany and Norway.[271] The Dutch Newspaper awso reported dat NSA infected more dan 50,000 computer networks worwdwide, often covertwy, wif mawicious spy software, sometimes in cooperation wif wocaw audorities, designed to steaw sensitive information, uh-hah-hah-hah.[42][272]

According to de cwassified documents weaked by Snowden, de Austrawian Signaws Directorate (ASD), formerwy known as de Defence Signaws Directorate, had offered to share intewwigence information it had cowwected wif de oder intewwigence agencies of de UKUSA Agreement. Data shared wif foreign countries incwude "buwk, unsewected, unminimised metadata" it had cowwected. The ASD provided such information on de condition dat no Austrawian citizens were targeted. At de time de ASD assessed dat "unintentionaw cowwection [of metadata of Austrawian nationaws] is not viewed as a significant issue". If a target was water identified as being an Austrawian nationaw, de ASD was reqwired to be contacted to ensure dat a warrant couwd be sought. Consideration was given as to wheder "medicaw, wegaw or rewigious information" wouwd be automaticawwy treated differentwy to oder types of data, however a decision was made dat each agency wouwd make such determinations on a case-by-case basis.[273] Leaked materiaw does not specify where de ASD had cowwected de intewwigence information from, however Section 7(a) of de Intewwigence Services Act 2001 (Commonweawf) states dat de ASD's rowe is "...to obtain intewwigence about de capabiwities, intentions or activities of peopwe or organisations outside Austrawia...".[274] As such, it is possibwe ASD's metadata intewwigence howdings was focused on foreign intewwigence cowwection and was widin de bounds of Austrawian waw.

The Washington Post reveawed dat de NSA has been tracking de wocations of mobiwe phones from aww over de worwd by tapping into de cabwes dat connect mobiwe networks gwobawwy and dat serve U.S. cewwphones as weww as foreign ones. In de process of doing so, de NSA cowwects more dan five biwwion records of phone wocations on a daiwy basis. This enabwes NSA anawysts to map cewwphone owners' rewationships by correwating deir patterns of movement over time wif dousands or miwwions of oder phone users who cross deir pads.[275][276][277][278][279][280][281][282]

The Washington Post awso reported dat bof GCHQ and de NSA make use of wocation data and advertising tracking fiwes generated drough normaw internet browsing (wif cookies operated by Googwe, known as "Pref") to pinpoint targets for government hacking and to bowster surveiwwance.[283][284][285]

The Norwegian Intewwigence Service (NIS), which cooperates wif de NSA, has gained access to Russian targets in de Kowa Peninsuwa and oder civiwian targets. In generaw, de NIS provides information to de NSA about "Powiticians", "Energy" and "Armament".[286] A top secret memo of de NSA wists de fowwowing years as miwestones of de Norway–United States of America SIGINT agreement, or NORUS Agreement:

1952 – Informaw starting year of cooperation between de NIS and de NSA[287]

The NSA considers de NIS to be one of its most rewiabwe partners. Bof agencies awso cooperate to crack de encryption systems of mutuaw targets. According to de NSA, Norway has made no objections to its reqwests from de NIS.[287]

On December 5, Sveriges Tewevision reported de Nationaw Defence Radio Estabwishment (FRA) has been conducting a cwandestine surveiwwance operation in Sweden, targeting de internaw powitics of Russia. The operation was conducted on behawf of de NSA, receiving data handed over to it by de FRA.[288][289] The Swedish-American surveiwwance operation awso targeted Russian energy interests as weww as de Bawtic states.[290] As part of de UKUSA Agreement, a secret treaty was signed in 1954 by Sweden wif de United States, de United Kingdom, Canada, Austrawia and New Zeawand, regarding cowwaboration and intewwigence sharing.[291]

As a resuwt of Snowden's discwosures, de notion of Swedish neutrawity in internationaw powitics was cawwed into qwestion, uh-hah-hah-hah.[citation needed] In an internaw document dating from de year 2006, de NSA acknowwedged dat its "rewationship" wif Sweden is "protected at de TOP SECRET wevew because of dat nation's powiticaw neutrawity."[292] Specific detaiws of Sweden's cooperation wif members of de UKUSA Agreement incwude:

The FRA has been granted access to XKeyscore, an anawyticaw database of de NSA.[293]

Since January 2013, a counterterrorism anawyst of de NSA has been stationed in de Swedish capitaw of Stockhowm[52]

The NSA, GCHQ and de FRA signed an agreement in 2004 dat awwows de FRA to directwy cowwaborate wif de NSA widout having to consuwt GCHQ.[52] About five years water, de Riksdag passed a controversiaw wegiswative change, briefwy awwowing de FRA to monitor bof wirewess and cabwe bound signaws passing de Swedish border widout a court order,[294] whiwe awso introducing severaw provisions designed to protect de privacy of individuaws, according to de originaw proposaw.[295] This wegiswation was amended 11 monds water,[296] in an effort to strengden protection of privacy by making court orders a reqwirement, and by imposing severaw wimits on de intewwigence-gadering.[297][298][299]

During de 2010 G-20 Toronto summit, de U.S. embassy in Ottawa was transformed into a security command post during a six-day spying operation dat was conducted by de NSA and cwosewy coordinated wif de Communications Security Estabwishment Canada (CSEC). The goaw of de spying operation was, among oders, to obtain information on internationaw devewopment, banking reform, and to counter trade protectionism to support "U.S. powicy goaws."[301] On behawf of de NSA, de CSEC has set up covert spying posts in 20 countries around de worwd.[10]

The NSA has cracked de most commonwy used cewwphone encryption technowogy, A5/1. According to a cwassified document weaked by Snowden, de agency can "process encrypted A5/1" even when it has not acqwired an encryption key.[307] In addition, de NSA uses various types of cewwphone infrastructure, such as de winks between carrier networks, to determine de wocation of a cewwphone user tracked by Visitor Location Registers.[308]

US district court judge for de District of Cowumbia, Richard Leon, decwared[309][310][311][312][313][314] on December 16, 2013, dat de mass cowwection of metadata of Americans' tewephone records by de Nationaw Security Agency probabwy viowates de fourf amendment prohibition of unreasonabwe searches and seizures.[315] Leon granted de reqwest for a prewiminary injunction dat bwocks de cowwection of phone data for two private pwaintiffs (Larry Kwayman, a conservative wawyer, and Charwes Strange, fader of a cryptowogist kiwwed in Afghanistan when his hewicopter was shot down in 2011)[316] and ordered de government to destroy any of deir records dat have been gadered. But de judge stayed action on his ruwing pending a government appeaw, recognizing in his 68-page opinion de "significant nationaw security interests at stake in dis case and de novewty of de constitutionaw issues."[315]

However federaw judge Wiwwiam H. Pauwey III in New York City ruwed[317] de U.S. government's gwobaw tewephone data-gadering system is needed to dwart potentiaw terrorist attacks, and dat it can onwy work if everyone's cawws are swept in, uh-hah-hah-hah. U.S. District Judge Pauwey awso ruwed dat Congress wegawwy set up de program and dat it does not viowate anyone's constitutionaw rights. The judge awso concwuded dat de tewephone data being swept up by NSA did not bewong to tewephone users, but to de tewephone companies. He furder ruwed dat when NSA obtains such data from de tewephone companies, and den probes into it to find winks between cawwers and potentiaw terrorists, dis furder use of de data was not even a search under de Fourf Amendment. He awso concwuded dat de controwwing precedent is Smif v. Marywand: "Smif's bedrock howding is dat an individuaw has no wegitimate expectation of privacy in information provided to dird parties," Judge Pauwey wrote.[318][319][320][321] The American Civiw Liberties Union decwared on January 2, 2012 dat it wiww appeaw Judge Pauwey's ruwing dat NSA buwk de phone record cowwection is wegaw. "The government has a wegitimate interest in tracking de associations of suspected terrorists, but tracking dose associations does not reqwire de government to subject every citizen to permanent surveiwwance," deputy ACLU wegaw director Jameew Jaffer said in a statement.[322]

In recent years, American and British intewwigence agencies conducted surveiwwance on more dan 1,100 targets, incwuding de office of an Israewi prime minister, heads of internationaw aid organizations, foreign energy companies and a European Union officiaw invowved in antitrust battwes wif American technowogy businesses.[323]

The Taiwored Access Operations (TAO) division of de NSA intercepted de shipping dewiveries of computers and waptops in order to instaww spyware and physicaw impwants on ewectronic gadgets. This was done in cwose cooperation wif de FBI and de CIA.[324][325][326][327][328][329][330] NSA officiaws responded to de Spiegew reports wif a statement, which said: "Taiwored Access Operations is a uniqwe nationaw asset dat is on de front wines of enabwing NSA to defend de nation and its awwies. [TAO's] work is centred on computer network expwoitation in support of foreign intewwigence cowwection, uh-hah-hah-hah."[331]

On December 4, 2013, The Washington Post reweased an internaw NSA chart iwwustrating de extent of de agency's mass cowwection of mobiwe phone wocation records, which amounts to about five biwwion on a daiwy basis.[275] The records are stored in a huge database known as FASCIA, which received over 27 terabytes of wocation data widin seven monds.[333]

The NSA is working to buiwd a powerfuw qwantum computer capabwe of breaking aww types of encryption, uh-hah-hah-hah.[334][335][336][337][338] The effort is part of a US$79.7 miwwion research program known as "Penetrating Hard Targets". It invowves extensive research carried out in warge, shiewded rooms known as Faraday cages, which are designed to prevent ewectromagnetic radiation from entering or weaving.[335] Currentwy, de NSA is cwose to producing basic buiwding bwocks dat wiww awwow de agency to gain "compwete qwantum controw on two semiconductorqwbits".[335] Once a qwantum computer is successfuwwy buiwt, it wouwd enabwe de NSA to unwock de encryption dat protects data hewd by banks, credit card companies, retaiwers, brokerages, governments and heawf care providers.[334]

According to The New York Times, de NSA is monitoring approximatewy 100,000 computers worwdwide wif spy software named Quantum. Quantum enabwes de NSA to conduct surveiwwance on dose computers on de one hand, and can awso create a digitaw highway for waunching cyberattacks on de oder hand. Among de targets are de Chinese and Russian miwitary, but awso trade institutions widin de European Union, uh-hah-hah-hah. The NYT awso reported dat de NSA can access and awter computers which are not connected wif de internet by a secret technowogy in use by de NSA since 2008. The prereqwisite is de physicaw insertion of de radio freqwency hardware by a spy, a manufacturer or an unwitting user. The technowogy rewies on a covert channew of radio waves dat can be transmitted from tiny circuit boards and USB cards inserted surreptitiouswy into de computers. In some cases, dey are sent to a briefcase-size reway station dat intewwigence agencies can set up miwes away from de target. The technowogy can awso transmit mawware back to de infected computer.[42]

Channew 4 and The Guardian reveawed de existence of Dishfire, a massive database of de NSA dat cowwects hundreds of miwwions of text messages on a daiwy basis.[339] GCHQ has been given fuww access to de database, which it uses to obtain personaw information of Britons by expwoiting a wegaw woophowe.[340]

Each day, de database receives and stores de fowwowing amounts of data:

The database is suppwemented wif an anawyticaw toow known as de Prefer program, which processes SMS messages to extract oder types of information incwuding contacts from missed caww awerts.[341]

The Privacy and Civiw Liberties Oversight Board report on mass surveiwwance was reweased on January 23, 2014. It recommends to end de buwk tewephone metadata, i.e., buwk phone records – phone numbers diawed, caww times and durations, but not caww content cowwection – cowwection program, to create a "Speciaw Advocate" to be invowved in some cases before de FISA court judge and to rewease future and past FISC decisions "dat invowve novew interpretations of FISA or oder significant qwestions of waw, technowogy or compwiance."[342][343][344]

According to a joint discwosure by The New York Times, The Guardian, and ProPubwica,[345][346][347][348][349] de NSA and GCHQ have begun working togeder to cowwect and store data from dozens of smartphoneappwication software by 2007 at de watest. A 2008 GCHQ report, weaked by Snowden asserts dat "anyone using Googwe Maps on a smartphone is working in support of a GCHQ system". The NSA and GCHQ have traded recipes for various purposes such as grabbing wocation data and journey pwans dat are made when a target uses Googwe Maps, and vacuuming up address books, buddy wists, phone wogs and geographic data embedded in photos posted on de mobiwe versions of numerous sociaw networks such as Facebook, Fwickr, LinkedIn, Twitter and oder services. In a separate 20-page report dated 2012, GCHQ cited de popuwar smartphone game "Angry Birds" as an exampwe of how an appwication couwd be used to extract user data. Taken togeder, such forms of data cowwection wouwd awwow de agencies to cowwect vitaw information about a user's wife, incwuding his or her home country, current wocation (drough geowocation), age, gender, ZIP code, maritaw status, income, ednicity, sexuaw orientation, education wevew, number of chiwdren, etc.[350][351]

A GCHQ document dated August 2012 provided detaiws of de Sqweaky Dowphin surveiwwance program, which enabwes GCHQ to conduct broad, reaw-time monitoring of various sociaw media features and sociaw media traffic such as YouTube video views, de Like button on Facebook, and Bwogspot/Bwogger visits widout de knowwedge or consent of de companies providing dose sociaw media features. The agency's "Sqweaky Dowphin" program can cowwect, anawyze and utiwize YouTube, Facebook and Bwogger data in specific situations in reaw time for anawysis purposes. The program awso cowwects de addresses from de biwwions of videos watched daiwy as weww as some user information for anawysis purposes.[352][353][354]

The Communications Security Estabwishment Canada (CSEC) has been tracking Canadian air passengers via free Wi-Fi services at a major Canadian airport. Passengers who exited de airport terminaw continued to be tracked as dey showed up at oder Wi-Fi wocations across Canada. In a CSEC document dated May 2012, de agency described how it had gained access to two communications systems wif over 300,000 users in order to pinpoint a specific imaginary target. The operation was executed on behawf of de NSA as a triaw run to test a new technowogy capabwe of tracking down "any target dat makes occasionaw forays into oder cities/regions." This technowogy was subseqwentwy shared wif Canada's Five Eyes partners – Austrawia, New Zeawand, Britain, and de United States.[357][358][359][360]

On January 27, 2014, The New York Times reweased[347] an internaw NSA document from a 2010 meeting dat detaiws de extent of de agency's surveiwwance on smartphones. Data cowwected incwude phone settings, network connections, Web browsing history, buddy wists, downwoaded documents, encryption usage, and user agents. Notice de fowwowing wine of text at de bottom – "TOP SECRET//COMINT//REL TO USA, FVEY" – which is used to indicated dat dis top secret document is rewated to communications intewwigence (COMINT), and can be accessed by de USA and its Five Eyes (FVEY) partners in Austrawia, Britain, Canada, and New Zeawand

According to research by Süddeutsche Zeitung and TV network NDR de mobiwe phone of former German chancewwor Gerhard Schröder was monitored from 2002 onwards, reportedwy because of his government's opposition to miwitary intervention in Iraq. The source of de watest information is a document weaked by Edward Snowden, uh-hah-hah-hah. The document, containing information about de Nationaw Sigint Reqwirement List (NSRL), had previouswy been interpreted as referring onwy to Angewa Merkew's mobiwe. However Süddeutsche Zeitung and NDR cwaim to have confirmation from NSA insiders dat de surveiwwance audorisation pertains not to de individuaw, but de powiticaw post – which in 2002 was stiww hewd by Schröder. According to research by de two media outwets, Schröder was pwaced as number 388 on de wist, which contains de names of persons and institutions to be put under surveiwwance by de NSA.[361][362][363][364]

The NSA Section 215 buwk tewephony metadata program which seeks to stockpiwe records on aww cawws made in de U.S. is cowwecting wess dan 30 percent of aww Americans' caww records because of an inabiwity to keep pace wif de expwosion in cewwphone use according to de Washington Post. The controversiaw program permits de NSA after a warrant granted by de secret Foreign Intewwigence Surveiwwance Court to record numbers, wengf and wocation of every caww from de participating carriers.[369][370]

The Intercept reported dat de U.S. government is using primariwy NSA surveiwwance to target peopwe for drone strikes overseas. In its report The Intercept audor detaiw de fwawed medods which are used to wocate targets for wedaw drone strikes, resuwting in de deads of innocent peopwe.[371] According to de Washington Post NSA anawysts and cowwectors i.e. NSA personnew which controws ewectronic surveiwwance eqwipment use de NSA's sophisticated surveiwwance capabiwities to track individuaw targets geographicawwy and in reaw time, whiwe drones and tacticaw units aimed deir weaponry against dose targets to take dem out.[372]

An unnamed US waw firm, reported to be Mayer Brown, was targeted by Austrawia's ASD. According to Snowden's documents, de ASD had offered to hand over dese intercepted communications to de NSA. This awwowed government audorities to be "abwe to continue to cover de tawks, providing highwy usefuw intewwigence for interested US customers".[373][374]

NSA and GCHQ documents reveawed dat de anti-secrecy organization WikiLeaks and oder activist groups were targeted for government surveiwwance and criminaw prosecution, uh-hah-hah-hah. In particuwar, de IP addresses of visitors to WikiLeaks were cowwected in reaw time, and de US government urged its awwies to fiwe criminaw charges against de founder of WikiLeaks, Juwian Assange, due to his organization's pubwication of de Afghanistan war wogs. The WikiLeaks organization was designated as a "mawicious foreign actor".[375]

Quoting an unnamed NSA officiaw in Germany, Biwd am Sonntag reported dat whiwst President Obama's order to stop spying on Merkew was being obeyed, de focus had shifted to bugging oder weading government and business figures incwuding Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere, a cwose confidant of Merkew. Caitwin Hayden, a security adviser to President Obama, was qwoted in de newspaper report as saying, "The US has made cwear it gaders intewwigence in exactwy de same way as any oder states."[376][377]

The Intercept reveaws dat government agencies are infiwtrating onwine communities and engaging in “fawse fwag operations” to discredit targets among dem peopwe who have noding to do wif terrorism or nationaw security dreats. The two main tactics dat are currentwy used are de injection of aww sorts of fawse materiaw onto de internet in order to destroy de reputation of its targets; and de use of sociaw sciences and oder techniqwes to manipuwate onwine discourse and activism to generate outcomes it considers desirabwe.[378][379][380][381]

The Guardian reported dat Britain's surveiwwance agency GCHQ, wif aid from de Nationaw Security Agency, intercepted and stored de webcam images of miwwions of internet users not suspected of wrongdoing. The surveiwwance program codenamed Optic Nerve cowwected stiww images of Yahoo webcam chats (one image every five minutes) in buwk and saved dem to agency databases. The agency discovered "dat a surprising number of peopwe use webcam conversations to show intimate parts of deir body to de oder person", estimating dat between 3% and 11% of de Yahoo webcam imagery harvested by GCHQ contains "undesirabwe nudity".[382]

The NSA has buiwt an infrastructure which enabwes it to covertwy hack into computers on a mass scawe by using automated systems dat reduce de wevew of human oversight in de process. The NSA rewies on an automated system codenamed TURBINE which in essence enabwes de automated management and controw of a warge network of impwants (a form of remotewy transmitted mawware on sewected individuaw computer devices or in buwk on tens of dousands of devices). As qwoted by The Intercept, TURBINE is designed to "awwow de current impwant network to scawe to warge size (miwwions of impwants) by creating a system dat does automated controw impwants by groups instead of individuawwy."[383] The NSA has shared many of its fiwes on de use of impwants wif its counterparts in de so-cawwed Five Eyes surveiwwance awwiance – de United Kingdom, Canada, New Zeawand, and Austrawia.

Among oder dings due to TURBINE and its controw over de impwants de NSA is capabwe of:

breaking into targeted computers and to siphoning out data from foreign Internet and phone networks

infecting a target's computer and exfiwtrating fiwes from a hard drive

covertwy recording audio from a computer’s microphone and taking snapshots wif its webcam

waunching cyberattacks by corrupting and disrupting fiwe downwoads or denying access to websites

The TURBINE impwants are winked to, and rewies upon, a warge network of cwandestine surveiwwance "sensors" dat de NSA has instawwed at wocations across de worwd, incwuding de agency's headqwarters in Marywand and eavesdropping bases used by de agency in Misawa, Japan and Menwif Hiww, Engwand. Codenamed as TURMOIL, de sensors operate as a sort of high-tech surveiwwance dragnet, monitoring packets of data as dey are sent across de Internet. When TURBINE impwants exfiwtrate data from infected computer systems, de TURMOIL sensors automaticawwy identify de data and return it to de NSA for anawysis. And when targets are communicating, de TURMOIL system can be used to send awerts or "tips" to TURBINE, enabwing de initiation of a mawware attack. To identify surveiwwance targets, de NSA uses a series of data "sewectors" as dey fwow across Internet cabwes. These sewectors can incwude emaiw addresses, IP addresses, or de uniqwe "cookies" containing a username or oder identifying information dat are sent to a user's computer by websites such as Googwe, Facebook, Hotmaiw, Yahoo, and Twitter, uniqwe Googwe advertising cookies dat track browsing habits, uniqwe encryption key fingerprints dat can be traced to a specific user, and computer IDs dat are sent across de Internet when a Windows computer crashes or updates.[383][384][385][386][387][388][389][390][391][392][393][394][395][396][397][398]

The CIA was accused by U.S. Senate Intewwigence Committee Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein of spying on a stand-awone computer network estabwished for de committee in its investigation of awwegations of CIA abuse in a George W. Bush-era detention and interrogation program.[399]

A voice interception program codenamed MYSTIC began in 2009. Awong wif RETRO, short for "retrospective retrievaw" (RETRO is voice audio recording buffer dat awwows retrievaw of captured content up to 30 days into de past), de MYSTIC program is capabwe of recording "100 percent" of a foreign country's tewephone cawws, enabwing de NSA to rewind and review conversations up to 30 days and de rewating metadata. Wif de capabiwity to store up to 30 days of recorded conversations MYSTIC enabwes de NSA to puww an instant history of de person's movements, associates and pwans.[400][401][402][403][404][405]

On March 21, Le Monde pubwished swides from an internaw presentation of de Communications Security Estabwishment Canada, which attributed a piece of mawicious software to French intewwigence. The CSEC presentation concwuded dat de wist of mawware victims matched French intewwigence priorities and found French cuwturaw reference in de mawware's code, incwuding de name Babar, a popuwar French chiwdren's character, and de devewoper name "Titi".[406]

The French tewecommunications corporation Orange S.A. shares its caww data wif de French intewwigence agency DGSE, which hands over de intercepted data to GCHQ.[407]

The NSA has spied on de Chinese technowogy company Huawei.[408][409][410] Huawei is a weading manufacturer of smartphones, tabwets, mobiwe phone infrastructure, and WLAN routers and instawws fiber optic cabwe. According to Der Spiegew dis "kind of technowogy […] is decisive in de NSA's battwe for data supremacy."[411] The NSA, in an operation named "Shotgiant", was abwe to access Huawei's emaiw archive and de source code for Huawei's communications products.[411] The US government has had wongstanding concerns dat Huawei may not be independent of de Peopwe's Liberation Army and dat de Chinese government might use eqwipment manufactured by Huawei to conduct cyberespionage or cyberwarfare. The goaws of de NSA operation were to assess de rewationship between Huawei and de PLA, to wearn more de Chinese government's pwans and to use information from Huawei to spy on Huawei's customers, incwuding Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Kenya, and Cuba. Former Chinese President Hu Jintao, de Chinese Trade Ministry, banks, as weww as tewecommunications companies were awso targeted by de NSA.[408][411]

The Intercept pubwished a document of an NSA empwoyee discussing how to buiwd a database of IP addresses, webmaiw, and Facebook accounts associated wif system administrators so dat de NSA can gain access to de networks and systems dey administer.[412][413]

At de end of March 2014, Der Spiegew and The Intercept pubwished, based on a series of cwassified fiwes from de archive provided to reporters by NSA whistwebwower Edward Snowden, articwes rewated to espionage efforts by GCHQ and NSA in Germany.[414][415] The British GCHQ targeted dree German internet firms for information about Internet traffic passing drough internet exchange points, important customers of de German internet providers, deir technowogy suppwiers as weww as future technicaw trends in deir business sector and company empwoyees.[414][415] The NSA was granted by de Foreign Intewwigence Surveiwwance Court de audority for bwanket surveiwwance of Germany, its peopwe and institutions, regardwess wheder dose affected are suspected of having committed an offense or not, widout an individuawized court order specifying on March 7, 2013.[415] In addition Germany's chancewwor Angewa Merkew was wisted in a surveiwwance search machine and database named Nymrod awong wif 121 oders foreign weaders.[414][415] As The Intercept wrote: "The NSA uses de Nymrod system to 'find information rewating to targets dat wouwd oderwise be tough to track down,' according to internaw NSA documents. Nymrod sifts drough secret reports based on intercepted communications as weww as fuww transcripts of faxes, phone cawws, and communications cowwected from computer systems. More dan 300 'cites' for Merkew are wisted as avaiwabwe in intewwigence reports and transcripts for NSA operatives to read."[414]

Towards de end of Apriw, Edward Snowden said dat de United States surveiwwance agencies spy on Americans more dan anyone ewse in de worwd, contrary to anyding dat has been said by de government up untiw dis point.[416]

The Intercept and WikiLeaks reveawed information about which countries were having deir communications cowwected as part of de MYSTIC surveiwwance program. On May 19, The Intercept reported dat de NSA is recording and archiving nearwy every ceww phone conversation in de Bahamas wif a system cawwed SOMALGET, a subprogram of MYSTIC. The mass surveiwwance has been occurring widout de Bahamian government's permission, uh-hah-hah-hah.[418] Aside from de Bahamas, The Intercept reported NSA interception of ceww phone metadata in Kenya, de Phiwippines, Mexico and a fiff country it did not name due to "credibwe concerns dat doing so couwd wead to increased viowence." WikiLeaks reweased a statement on May 23 cwaiming dat Afghanistan was de unnamed nation, uh-hah-hah-hah.[419]

In a statement responding to de revewations, de NSA said "de impwication dat NSA's foreign intewwigence cowwection is arbitrary and unconstrained is fawse."[418]

Through its gwobaw surveiwwance operations de NSA expwoits de fwood of images incwuded in emaiws, text messages, sociaw media, videoconferences and oder communications to harvest miwwions of images. These images are den used by de NSA in sophisticated faciaw recognition programs to track suspected terrorists and oder intewwigence targets.[420]

Vodafone reveawed dat dere were secret wires dat awwowed government agencies direct access to deir networks.[421] This access does not reqwire warrants and de direct access wire is often eqwipment in a wocked room.[421] In six countries where Vodafone operates, de waw reqwires tewecommunication companies to instaww such access or awwows governments to do so.[421] Vodafone did not name dese countries in case some governments retawiated by imprisoning deir staff.[421]Shami Chakrabarti of Liberty said "For governments to access phone cawws at de fwick of a switch is unprecedented and terrifying. Snowden reveawed de internet was awready treated as fair game. Bwuster dat aww is weww is wearing pretty din – our anawogue waws need a digitaw overhauw."[421] Vodafone pubwished its first Law Enforcement Discwosure Report on June 6, 2014.[421] Vodafone group privacy officer Stephen Deadman said "These pipes exist, de direct access modew exists. We are making a caww to end direct access as a means of government agencies obtaining peopwe's communication data. Widout an officiaw warrant, dere is no externaw visibiwity. If we receive a demand we can push back against de agency. The fact dat a government has to issue a piece of paper is an important constraint on how powers are used."[421] Gus Hosein, director of Privacy Internationaw said "I never dought de tewcos wouwd be so compwicit. It's a brave step by Vodafone and hopefuwwy de oder tewcos wiww become more brave wif discwosure, but what we need is for dem to be braver about fighting back against de iwwegaw reqwests and de waws demsewves."[421]

Above-top-secret documentation of a covert surveiwwance program named Overseas Processing Centre 1 (OPC-1) (codenamed "CIRCUIT") by GCHQ was pubwished by The Register. Based on documents weaked by Edward Snowden, GCHQ taps into undersea fiber optic cabwes via secret spy bases near de Strait of Hormuz and Yemen, uh-hah-hah-hah. BT and Vodafone are impwicated.[422]

The Danish newspaper Dagbwadet Information and The Intercept reveawed on June 19, 2014, de NSA mass surveiwwance program codenamed RAMPART-A. Under RAMPART-A, 'dird party' countries tap into fiber optic cabwes carrying de majority of de worwd's ewectronic communications and are secretwy awwowing de NSA to instaww surveiwwance eqwipment on dese fiber-optic cabwes. The foreign partners of de NSA turn massive amounts of data wike de content of phone cawws, faxes, e-maiws, internet chats, data from virtuaw private networks, and cawws made using Voice over IP software wike Skype over to de NSA. In return dese partners receive access to de NSA's sophisticated surveiwwance eqwipment so dat dey too can spy on de mass of data dat fwows in and out of deir territory. Among de partners participating in de NSA mass surveiwwance program are Denmark and Germany.[423][424][425]

Former NSA officiaw and whistwebwower Wiwwiam Binney spoke at a Centre for Investigative Journawism conference in London, uh-hah-hah-hah. According to Binney, "at weast 80% of aww audio cawws, not just metadata, are recorded and stored in de US. The NSA wies about what it stores." He awso stated dat de majority of fiber optic cabwes run drough de U.S., which "is no accident and awwows de US to view aww communication coming in, uh-hah-hah-hah."[427]

The Washington Post reweased a review of a cache provided by Snowden containing roughwy 160,000 text messages and e-maiws intercepted by de NSA between 2009 and 2012. The newspaper concwuded dat nine out of ten account howders whose conversations were recorded by de agency "were not de intended surveiwwance targets but were caught in a net de agency had cast for somebody ewse." In its anawysis, The Post awso noted dat many of de account howders were Americans.[428]

On Juwy 9, a sowdier working widin Germany's Federaw Ministry of Defence (BMVg) feww under suspicion of spying for de United States.[429] As a resuwt of de Juwy 4 case and dis one, de German government expewwed de CIA station chief in Germany on Juwy 17.[430]

On Juwy 18, former State Department officiaw John Tye reweased an editoriaw in The Washington Post, highwighting concerns over data cowwection under Executive Order 12333. Tye's concerns are rooted in cwassified materiaw he had access to drough de State Department, dough he has not pubwicwy reweased any cwassified materiaws.[431]

The Intercept reported dat de NSA is "secretwy providing data to nearwy two dozen U.S. government agencies wif a 'Googwe-wike' search engine" cawwed ICREACH. The database, The Intercept reported, is accessibwe to domestic waw enforcement agencies incwuding de FBI and de Drug Enforcement Administration and was buiwt to contain more dan 850 biwwion metadata records about phone cawws, emaiws, cewwphone wocations, and text messages.[432][433]

Based on documents obtained from Snowden, The Intercept reported dat de NSA and GCHQ had broken into de internaw computer network of Gemawto and stowen de encryption keys dat are used in SIM cards no water dan 2010. As of 2015[update], de company is de worwd's wargest manufacturer of SIM cards, making about two biwwion cards a year. Wif de keys, de intewwigence agencies couwd eavesdrop on ceww phones widout de knowwedge of mobiwe phone operators or foreign governments.[434]

In January 2015, de DEA reveawed dat it had been cowwecting metadata records for aww tewephone cawws made by Americans to 116 countries winked to drug trafficking. The DEA's program was separate from de tewephony metadata programs run by de NSA.[437] In Apriw, USA Today reported dat de DEA's data cowwection program began in 1992 and incwuded aww tewephone cawws between de United States and from Canada and Mexico. Current and former DEA officiaws described de program as de precursor of de NSA's simiwar programs.[438] The DEA said its program was suspended in September 2013, after a review of de NSA's programs and dat it was "uwtimatewy terminated."[437]

Prime Minister David Cameron warned journawists dat "if dey don't demonstrate some sociaw responsibiwity it wiww be very difficuwt for government to stand back and not to act."[452]Deputy Prime MinisterNick Cwegg emphasized dat de media shouwd "absowutewy defend de principwe of secrecy for de intewwigence agencies".[453]

Foreign Secretary Wiwwiam Hague cwaimed dat "we take great care to bawance individuaw privacy wif our duty to safeguard de pubwic and UK nationaw security."[454] Hague defended de Five Eyes awwiance and reiterated dat de British-U.S. intewwigence rewationship must not be endangered because it "saved many wives".[455]

Former Prime Minister Tony Abbott stated dat "every Austrawian governmentaw agency, every Austrawian officiaw at home and abroad, operates in accordance wif de waw".[456] Abbott criticized de Austrawian Broadcasting Corporation for being unpatriotic due to its reporting on de documents provided by Snowden, whom Abbott described as a "traitor".[457][458] Foreign Minister Juwie Bishop awso denounced Snowden as a traitor and accused him of "unprecedented" treachery.[459] Bishop defended de Five Eyes awwiance and reiterated dat de Austrawian–U.S. intewwigence rewationship must not be endangered because it "saves wives".[460]

In Juwy 2013, Chancewwor Angewa Merkew defended de surveiwwance practices of de NSA, and described de United States as "our truest awwy droughout de decades".[461][462] After de NSA's surveiwwance on Merkew was reveawed, however, de Chancewwor compared de NSA wif de Stasi.[463] According to The Guardian, Berwin is using de controversy over NSA spying as weverage to enter de excwusive Five Eyes awwiance.[464]

Interior Minister Hans-Peter Friedrich stated dat "de Americans take our data privacy concerns seriouswy."[465] Testifying before de German Parwiament, Friedrich defended de NSA's surveiwwance, and cited five terrorist pwots on German soiw dat were prevented because of de NSA.[466] However, in Apriw 2014, anoder German interior minister criticized de United States for faiwing to provide sufficient assurances to Germany dat it had reined in its spying tactics. Thomas de Maiziere, a cwose awwy of Merkew, towd Der Spiegew: "U.S. intewwigence medods may be justified to a warge extent by security needs, but de tactics are excessive and over-de-top."[467]

Interior Minister Ronawd Pwasterk apowogized for incorrectwy cwaiming dat de NSA had cowwected 1.8 miwwion records of metadata in de Nederwands. Pwasterk acknowwedged dat it was in fact Dutch intewwigence services who cowwected de records and transferred dem to de NSA.[471][472]

The Danish Prime Minister Hewwe Thorning-Schmidt has praised de American intewwigence agencies, cwaiming dey have prevented terrorist attacks in Denmark, and expressed her personaw bewief dat de Danish peopwe "shouwd be gratefuw" for de Americans' surveiwwance.[473] She has water cwaimed dat de Danish audorities have no basis for assuming dat American intewwigence agencies have performed iwwegaw spying activities towards Denmark or Danish interests.[474]

In January 2014, U.S. President Barack Obama said dat "de sensationaw way in which dese discwosures have come out has often shed more heat dan wight"[23] and critics such as Sean Wiwentz cwaimed dat "de NSA has acted far more responsibwy dan de cwaims made by de weakers and pubwicized by de press." In Wiwentz' view "The weakers have gone far beyond justifiabwy bwowing de whistwe on abusive programs. In addition to deir awarmism about [U.S.] domestic surveiwwance, many of de Snowden documents reweased dus far have had noding whatsoever to do wif domestic surveiwwance."[24]Edward Lucas, former Moscow bureau chief for The Economist, agreed, asserting dat "Snowden's revewations neatwy and suspiciouswy fits de interests of one country: Russia" and citing Masha Gessen's statement dat "The Russian propaganda machine has not gotten dis much miweage out of a US citizen since Angewa Davis's murder triaw in 1971."[481]

Bob Cesca objected to The New York Times faiwing to redact de name of an NSA empwoyee and de specific wocation where an aw Qaeda group was being targeted in a series of swides de paper made pubwicwy avaiwabwe.[482]

Russian journawist Andrei Sowdatov argued dat Snowden's revewations had had negative conseqwences for internet freedom in Russia, as Russian audorities increased deir own surveiwwance and reguwation on de pretext of protecting de privacy of Russian users. Snowden's name was invoked by Russian wegiswators who supported measures forcing pwatforms such as Googwe, Facebook, Twitter and Gmaiw and YouTube to wocate deir servers on Russian soiw or instaww SORM bwack boxes on deir servers so dat Russian audorities couwd controw dem.[483] Sowdatov awso contended dat as a resuwt of de discwosures, internationaw support for having nationaw governments take over de powers of de organizations invowved in coordinating de Internet's gwobaw architectures had grown, which couwd wead to a Bawkanization of de Internet dat restricted free access to information, uh-hah-hah-hah.[484] The Montevideo Statement on de Future of Internet Cooperation issued in October 2013, by ICANN and oder organizations warned against "Internet fragmentation at a nationaw wevew" and expressed "strong concern over de undermining of de trust and confidence of Internet users gwobawwy due to recent revewations".[485]

In wate 2014, Freedom House said "[s]ome states are using de revewations of widespread surveiwwance by de U.S. Nationaw Security Agency (NSA) as an excuse to augment deir own monitoring capabiwities, freqwentwy wif wittwe or no oversight, and often aimed at de powiticaw opposition and human rights activists."[486]

^"U.S. Ewectronic Espionage: A Memoir". Ramparts. August 1972. pp. 35–50. The SIGINT community was defined by a TOP SECRET treaty signed in 1947. It was cawwed de UKUSA treaty. The Nationaw Security Agency signed for de U.S. and became what's cawwed First Party to de Treaty.

^Campbeww, Duncan (August 12, 1988). "Somebody's Listening". New Statesman. Archived from de originaw on Apriw 20, 2013. The Congressionaw officiaws were first towd of de Thurmond interception by a former empwoyee of de Lockheed Space and Missiwes Corporation, Margaret Newsham, who now wives in Sunnyvawe, Cawifornia.

^ abShane, Scott (November 2, 2013). "No Morsew Too Minuscuwe for Aww-Consuming N.S.A."The New York Times. Archived from de originaw on November 25, 2013. Retrieved November 25, 2013. This "communications fingerprinting," as a document cawwed it, is de key to what de N.S.A. does. It awwows de agency's computers to scan de stream of internationaw communications and pwuck out messages tied to de supreme weader.

^"NSA-Geheimdokumente: "Vorwärtsverteidigung" mit QFIRE". Der Spiegew. December 30, 2014. Retrieved March 19, 2014. This photo gawwery expwains de QFIRE piwot program designed to attack internet connections widin de framework of so cawwed forward defense measures. The photo gawwery is rewated to de 2014-02-12 The Intecept Articwe How de NSA Pwans to Infect ‘Miwwions’ of Computers wif Mawware by Ryan Gawwagher and Gwenn Greenwawd.

"Gwobaw Surveiwwance. An annotated and categorized "overview of de revewations fowwowing de weaks by de whistwebwower Edward Snowden, uh-hah-hah-hah. There are awso some winks to comments and fowwowups". By Oswo University Library.